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Should gender define Scouting?

This week I want to discuss responses to a post I published last week about gender in Scouting: Girls in the BSA.

The post garnered lot’s of responses both for and against the idea of the BSA becoming a co-ed organization, and I’ll discuss some of the objections in this podcast.  The question of gender and Scouting can be an explosive one since gender issues have caused much consternation and disagreement over the years. Fortunately nearly all the Scouters who replied to last weeks post did so in a reasonably level tone, something uncommon in the average online discussion.

A rough calculation of the responses revealed that 45% favored the change enthusiastically, 37% disagreed with equal enthusiasm, and 18% thought it was a good idea but expressed varied concerns.

Organizations usually embrace cultural change slower than their individual members. Any organization of national scope and more than a century of service is likely to have found itself behind the curve because they are reluctant to face cultural realities – especially when championing a set of values and ethics trumpeted as unchanging and unalterable. It’s clear, however, that Scouting organizations have changed how they interpret and express their values many times.  The motivations for change come from internal discussions and external pressures, things evolve, things change and these changes are not all bad.

In This Podcast

Gender and Scouting

Podcast Notes

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

I’ll be brief, well, kind of…

… join me as I talk about two key ideas for Scouters I hope you find helpful .

This podcast condenses into one talk the answers I wrote to several common email questions I had this summer. I want to share two key ideas I have talked about many times before, but I think are always important to emphasize. You can’t talk too much about these two ideas for Scouters, I hope!

Scouters are in the opportunity business, we create opportunities for young people to do things. How we approach our work is all important, our attitudes, perspectives and methods are important – because we are believers in the ability of young people to make our world a better place.

We do our work in a relentlessly positive atmosphere – the Scout oath and law are about who to be and what to do, not who not to be and what not to do.

Young people yearn for leaders to take them in a positive direction, one that points them towards love and goodwill, they do great things, and become great leaders themselves if we create the opportunities and encourage them to understand and apply the ideals of Scouting.

In This Podcast

Two Key Ideas for Scouters

Podcast Notes

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Hey! I’m still here, are you?

My summer break stretched into the fall a little! Spend some time catching up with me in this briefer edition of the podcast, lots to talk about!

We had a great trip to Kandersteg International Scout Center in Switzerland, the troop had a great week at summer camp and have laid the foundations for a great year of activities for our Scouts.

The BSA began a listening campaign around the idea of “serving the whole family” and allowing girls to register in all of our age divisions, hooray!

We held a National Jamboree where the President’s speech became an issue, and in we’ve seen troubling events on a national scale, how do we approach things like this as Scouters?

What;s happening at Scoutmastercg.com? Working on redesigning teh site and adding functions I hope you will appreciate.

In This Podcast

Catching up! 

Podcast Notes

Kandersteg International Scout Center

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

 Some Scouting problems are just nettlesome…

… they aren’t discipline problems, or particularly disruptive, just nettlesome, irritating, like stinging nettles.

Everyone thinks it’s the Scoutmaster’s responsibility to fix nettlesome Scouting problems, truth is it isn’t, at least not directly.

Most Scouters run into a situation like this, it bothers them, and then they create a rule thinking this will fix things.

It doesn’t.

Rules are powerless to change underlying attitudes, they can only compel compliance. Once rules are made you put yourself in the role of policing them, judging consequences, and then dishing them out. Once you go down that road it takes over your thinking and you end up squandering your energy on a useless enterprise.

Remember the aim, to develop character using the patrol method. Assume that you are powerless, don’t make rules or think that you have to resolve every nettlesome thing that happens.

Make a habit of praising Scouts publicly by name when you see good behavior, ignore nettlesome behavior, and champion the Scout oath and law at every opportunity.

In This Podcast

0:18 Trails and cots.

1:09 Mailbag, Intro 

7:01 Nettlesome Scouting problems.

Podcast Notes

FISCAL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES FOR BSA UNITS

Get the song Sasquatch by Bucky’s band Los Festingos.

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

 Who “owns” the pack, troop or crew?

Scouting Charters are held by a chartering organization owns all of the assets of a Scout unit. 

As for whether or not they will dictate how the money is spent; the chartered organization is responsible to make sure finances are administered properly.

In practice most chartered organizations do not get very involved in the management of the finances or the program, they entrust those decisions to the volunteers involved.

Someone is registered as the chartered organization representative, they handle the relationship between the packs volunteers and the chartered organization. 

Most of the time the charter for a unit predates the present volunteers and many of the people at the chartering organization. Nobody may know how any of this is arranged because they weren’t around when it was set up. See the Chartered Organization Representative Guidebook link in the podcast notes to learn more.

In This Podcast

0:19 How do you make a mosquito repellant?

1:07  Mailbag, Intro 

5:44  Andrea Kuperman’s advice on working with Scout parents

7:20 Scott Williams asks about parents driving Scouts to activities.

10:45 Who “owns” the pack, troop or crew?

Podcast Notes

Chartered Organization Representative Guidebook 

Get the song Sasquatch by Bucky’s band Los Festingos.

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Should we ask Scouts to sign “leadership contracts”?

A couple of decades ago I tried Scout contracts, it was a mistake.

I guess at the time that I would teach my Scouts a thing or two and demand that that sign a Scout contract before they took on a role of responsibility. Of course they signed it and then they did not behave any differently, they missed meetings and trips just like before. I don’t know what I was going to do with that contract other than make Scouts feel bad for being teenagers, there are plenty people who do that in their lives anyway, so why not join in?

What I came to realize is that the Scouts were volunteering their time just like I was. I was not there to be their employer, their boss, or their drill Sergeant, I was there to make the opportunity to be Scouts possible.

In This Podcast

0:19 A wisk he was willing to take.

1:23  Mailbag, Intro 

8:03  A Scout who hates camping.

11:59 Leadership contracts.

17:16 Parents on boards of review?

Podcast Notes

In the mailbag Jeremy refers to my Ten Essentials PDF

Get the song Sasquatch by Bucky’s band Los Festingos.

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

If the Scouts are leading themselves who is leading the Scout leaders?

This week I’ll field a couple of email questions that ask the question “who leads the Scout leaders?”

Scouting is a team sport, while we all work to build consensus it’s not a democracy. It is, as BP said, “a jolly game” that depends on families, scouts and Scouters working together in a collaborative process.  When people understand their roles in the process, their positions on the team that plays this “jolly game”,  things get energized.

A clear understanding of the dynamics of leadership amongst Scouters is important to good Scouting for our youth members. Scout leaders advise, mentor and council Scouts, but the adults involved need leadership too. 

In This Podcast

0:17 Tutankhamen Effect 

1:32  Mailbag, Intro 

6:50 Who decides who goes to NYLT?

9:22 Assistant Scoutmaster wants to see some changes 

17:45 Should I send this email to our Scout’s parents?

Podcast Notes

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Get the song Sasquatch by Bucky’s band Los Festingos.

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

You’ve used an iterative process before …

… whether you know it or not. Iteration means trying something out in a slightly or wholly different way if it does not succeed when first tried.

I have some email questions to answer this week and one got me thinking about iteration. Scouting is an iterative process, we repeat the same class of experiences in an effort to gain knowledge and that knowledge foments growth, it goes very deep, but the practice is very simple. Boys are Scouts to go camping with their friends. The goal is going camping, that’s all, they aren’t there to learn anything or do exercises.

In This Podcast

0:16 Stew tasting  

1:13  Mailbag, Intro 

6:08  Scouting Alumni

7:38 New troop needs direction – this is about iteration.

18:18 Eagle Scout Project Proposal Advice

20:41 Quarterly Program Question

Podcast Notes

The story I mention in the mailbag is here Why We Have Scoutmasters

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Another visit with our favorite through hikers …

… from a third of the way through their quest to complete the 2000 mile Appalachian Trail. Wade “Nutshoe” Bastain, Bucky “No Name, Buckminster” Kellorg, and their fellow Eagle Scout and hiking companion “Bear” join us from southern Virginia to relate their latest adventures along the Appalachian trail.

In This Podcast

0:17 Scout Zombies

1:45 Mailbag, Intro 

10:35  Bucky, Wade, and Bear report on their trail adventure.

Podcast Notes

The story I mention in the mailbag is here Why We Have Scoutmasters

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

We encourage active Scouts a number of ways …

… but at the heart of the matter there’s only two things that make a difference, and  I’ll discuss those two key points in this week’s podcast. The same things that make active Scouts can help us increase activity at roundtables and other functions like courts of honor. We may be looking for answers in all the wrong places, or think low attendance or interest is caused by things beyond our control, I think it’s simpler than that.

What do you advise Scouts who need to fulfil requirements for conservation related service work? I have a couple of ideas, but I’d like to hear yours – get in touch here.

In This Podcast

0:16 Rounding up Scouts

1:11 Intro 

8:06  How do I get more Scouters to a roundtable?

11:57  How do I get more parents to a court of honor?

24:45 What is “conservation related” service?

Podcast Notes

See Bucky and Wade (my old Scouts through-hiking the Appalachian Trail) in this YouTube video. Wade is interviewed with three other hikers, and Bucky follows on his own.

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Happy Wanderer Opening Music